Conducting Research Literature Reviews: From the Internet to Paper

by Arlene Fink

Conducting Research Literature Reviews, Second Edition shows readers how to identify, interpret, and analyze published and unpublished research literature. Through the use of checklists, case examples, and exercises, author Arlene Fink unravels the intricacies of literature reviews. The text also discusses the use of Boolean operators for simple and advanced searches and shows readers how to use bibliographic software to organize literature reviews and search "The Virtual File Cabinet." It also describes how to synthesize the literature as a stand-alone report or as a component of a paper or proposal.

Genres: Research, Nonfiction

264 pages, Paperback

First published April 21, 1998

About the author

Arlene Fink (Ph.D.) is Professor of Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles, and president of the Langley Research Institute. Her main interests include evaluation and survey research and the conduct of research literature reviews as well as the evaluation of their quality. Dr. Fink has conducted scores of literature reviews and evaluation studies in public health, medicine, and education. She is on the faculty of UCLA's Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program and is a scientific and evaluation advisor to UCLA's Gambling Studies and IMPACT (Improving Access, Counseling & Treatment for Californians with Prostate Cancer) programs. She consults nationally and internationally for agencies such as L'institut de Promotion del la Prevention Secondaire en Addictologie (IPPSA) in Paris, France, and Peninsula Health in Victoria, Australia. Professor Fink has taught and lectured extensively all over the world and is the author of over 135 peer-reviewed articles and 15 textbooks.

Reviews

[Neil R. Coulter · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second book I’ve read in preparation for teaching a session on literature reviews for a doctoral-level course in arts research. Like the other book, this one has good information (more than the other one, actually), along with a lot of content that is just not at all applicable to the ethnographic fieldwork–based dissertations my students are preparing to write. What I like about this book is the introductory chapter about setting up a rigorous system to find and evaluate sources. This is helpful for my students, because the qualitative nature of their humanities research sometimes deemphasizes the need for logical systems like this. The screening methods (practical and methodological) the authors recommend here are useful for my teaching, even if their particular area is not 1:1 applicable. I look forward to working through these issues with my students, and I will encourage them to formulate their own screening considerations.

The first chapter also includes a list of lit reviews that are available online. This is extremely helpful, and it’s exactly what was missing from the other book I read, which never gave any examples of actual lit reviews.

After the first chapter, however, the content moves so far into clinical/medical research specifically that it becomes much less relevant for the work my students are doing. There are general principles that are good across the academic spectrum, but a lot of this book is targeted toward only a small number of research disciplines. The middle chapters leave the topic of lit reviews and instead discuss, in detail, the kinds of research projects that are possible. I wish the book was more general, or that the title was more specific.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I used this book when I was contemplating conducting a review of the literature for publication. I ended up using it for preparation for my dissertation. It was an excellent book and will be a reference for many years to come. I recommend it to my peers. It made me think through a replicable and reliable methodology for searching for literature and being able to be comprehensive in my research process.

[Marwa M.]

مفيد جدا لأي شخص ينوي اجراء دراسة meta analysis
أو بيقرأ النوع ده من الدراسات
بيركز على تعليم مهارات زي تنقيح الانتاج العلمي ومعرفة ايه المهم والمفيد فيه وازاي تبحث عن اي موضوع وتقدر توصل لاكبر قدر من المعلومات والدراسات المتاحة عنه
كتاب مفيد جدا ومهم لأي باحث .. تعليمي و فيه تدريبات كتير واسلوبه واضح للغاية

[Sarah]

I hope one day I can make a living selling common sense too.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tilted more towards meta-analyses and clinical/medical literature reviews, but contains a lot of guidance that is applicable to any (particularly systematic) literature review.

[Hilda · Rating 2 out of 5]

How should I put this together?
I was assigned to read this book for a course and I would say I'm glad for that.

Even though this book had all its examples for medical or psychological research, it was still highly relevant for my research in computer science. After all, a lot of best practices, the dos and don'ts in research are common. To sum up, in general it was a quite good read. There were a lot of warnings like, "Be wary of studies that gloss over this and that," which I really appreciate.

BUT! I have issues with the structure of the chapters. It was sooo confusing. I got lost A LOT OF TIMES. I didn't know whether I was on a section, or a subsection, or this is just an example that I can skip. Seriously though, the structure of the chapters was awful.

Finally, I don't know how to rate the book. It was good but the issues I've mentioned before had seriously made it difficult to read.

[Exavidreader]

This book does not only discuss tips on how to do literature review. Part of the process of doing a literature review is to also be able to identify if the research design in an article is valid. The author thus includes discussions on the different types of research designs and what is considered reliable research. Several references related to the topic are provided after every section. Some of the tips may seem obvious, which is why I would highly recommend it for any novice that is still new in conducting research and literature review. At the same time, it has practical tips even for experienced researchers. The only reason I didn't finish is because I didn't have the time and the knowledge I already have is sufficient to get me through, for now.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was another book required for my class where I have to write a Literature Review. This is a one star book for excitement, and a five star book for its applicable content. If you have to write a Lit Review, this is the book for you.

[Rainier Moreno-Lacalle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Replete with cross-disciplinary exemplars. The words used are easy to read.